John Cawley

John Cawley is a Professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management, and the Department of Economics, at Cornell University. He is co-Director of Cornell's Institute on Health Economics, Health Behaviors and Disparities.

In addition to his affiliation with Cornell, John is a Visiting Professor at the School of Economics of the University of Sydney, Australia, an Honorary Professor at the J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics at the National University of Ireland, Galway, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a Research Fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). He was a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee "Prevention of Obesity in Children and Youth" and has served on advisory boards and expert panels for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other government agencies.

For his research on the economics of obesity, John has received the Investigator Award in Health Policy Research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the John D. Thompson Prize for Young Investigators from the Association of University Programs in Health Administration, and the Charles C. Shepard Science Award in Prevention and Control from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. John is also a two-time recipient of the Kappa Omicron Nu / Human Ecology Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Advising of students.

Prior to arriving at Cornell, John was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan from 1999-2001. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago and his undergraduate degree in economics from Harvard University.

Current Research Activities:

Click here to download a summary of John's research on the economics of obesity in the NBER Reporter (2013).Click here to download a PowerPoint summary of John's research on the economics of obesity.

John's primary field of research is health economics, with a focus on the economics of obesity. He studies the economic causes of obesity, the economic consequences of obesity, and economic approaches to obesity treatment and prevention. Examples of research projects include: the effects of food advertising on diet and of income on weight; the impact of obesity on labor market outcomes such as wages; the effect of physical education on youths; and the effectiveness of financial rewards for weight loss.

His research has been published in general-interest economics journals (American Economic Review, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Perspectives) as well as journals in health economics (Journal of Health Economics, Health Economics), labor economics (Journal of Human Resources, Labour Economics), and public policy (Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Health Affairs).

John serves as an Editor of the Journal of Health Economics, an Associate Editor of Health Economics, is on the editorial board of the American Journal of Health Economics, and is the former co-editor-in-chief of Economics and Human Biology.

His research has been supported by grants from the following sources: the National Institutes of Health; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the Economic Research Initiative on the Uninsured; the IBM Center for the Business of Government; the Merck Foundation Center on Consumers, Pharmaceutical Policy, and Health; the University of Michigan Retirement Research Consortium; the U. S. Department of Agriculture; the Institute for the Social Sciences and the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center at Cornell University; and J. P. Morgan Private Bank Global Philanthropic Services.

John's research has been widely covered in the media, including stories in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, The Economist, Business Week, Forbes, Scientific American, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.